


The Re-Education of Anaander Mianaai

by Chelonie



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: AI clones, Angst, Garsedd, Gen, Re-Education, Republic of Two Systems Independence Day, ancillary clones, and thinks she's the best thing since hot tea, because she has all the clones, brief mention of Anaander/Anaander that happened offscreen, but nothing explicit at all, r2sid 2018, so you know she did
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 07:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14303796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: "You want me to volunteer for re-education," Anaander guessed, bitterly. "How much do you even know about it? What are you punishing me for? Annexations? Making ancillaries?""Murder. Only murder." Tisarwat said. Then held her tongue, knowing that 'only' meant very little to the person who had ordered the destruction of an entire star system. Tisarwat herself had nightmares about Garsedd. She remembered being so angry about the Presger gun, the loss of 24 ships, that she had made that order, immediately wished to rescind it, but held her tongue. She remembered a thousand years of regretting what she had done.





	The Re-Education of Anaander Mianaai

"But I can't re-educate the Lord of the Radch!" Interrogator Esten said, aghast.

Tisarwat sat across from her in the Interrogator's office, while Bo Nine poured the tea. "You understand, that we aren't putting Anaander Mianaai on trial for annexations or transportations. We can't set the precedent of putting a head of state on trial for acts they commit far from the Two Systems. And we certainly don't want to say that this instance of the Tyrant is guilty for acts committed before she was born, by other hands." That was an egg Tisarwat was not ready to open, for her own, very personal, reasons. "But she did come into our Station and murder the Head of Security. We all saw it." Over and over and over again, thanks to Station's broadcast of the event. "Fleet Captain suggested we let her go, but that isn't possible. No Ship will take her. Station refuses to keep her. And if we intend to allow her to live here on planet, she must be rehabilitated and re-educated."

"How much do you understand about how re-education works?" Interrogator Esten asked. Tisarwat understood quite a lot – possibly more than Esten herself – but only made a gesture indicating ambivalence. "We can say we are only rehabilitating her for one murder, but if she remembers more – if she remembers Garsedd for example – that must become part of the re-education process. Teaching her that murder is wrong cannot work if she remembers committing murders and receiving no sanctions for them. It could only condition her not to murder anyone in the specific circumstances that occurred before, which is hardly useful at all. No, better not to even try. Better simply to leave her imprisoned."

"And what if you tried to re-educate her completely, for all of her murders, including Garsedd?"

"Amaat's grace, that would likely take months! Perhaps longer! How old is she? Do we even know?"

Tisarwat did, but kept that information to herself as she sipped her tea. "The difficulties do sound insurmountable. How unfortunate for her then."

* * *

Three days later, Tisarwat escorted the Tyrant to the prison temple to allow her to pray. The conversation had been the same with every Magistrate and Interrogator on the planet. Re-educating the Tyrant would be too dangerous, take too long. There was no way to ethically go into her mind and re-train her.  Tisarwat had not been surprised to hear that, but she wanted to check before she tried her next gambit.

After prayers, she took Anaander Mianaai out walking along a lonely trail near the prison. Most prisoners wouldn't receive such gestures, but most weren't held indefinitely. This time, she had several Bos with her as protection. She knew how dangerous the Tyrant was, even tired and defeated as this instance seemed to be.

"No Magistrate on Athoek will order you into re-education. But if you aren't re-educated, you'll never be set free," Tisarwat said. "There can be no Benefit for anyone in your imprisonment."

"You want me to volunteer for re-education," Anaander guessed, bitterly. "How much do you even know about it? What are you punishing me for? Annexations? Making ancillaries?"

"Murder. Only murder." Tisarwat said. Then held her tongue, knowing that 'only' meant very little to the person who had ordered the destruction of an entire star system. Tisarwat herself had nightmares about Garsedd. She remembered being so angry about the Presger gun, the loss of 24 ships, that she had made that order, immediately wished to rescind it, but held her tongue. She remembered a thousand years of regretting what she had done. _How could so many memories fit into one mind?_ And yet they did. In hers. In Fleet Captain's. In _Sphene's_ , when it was cut off from its ship. And now, in the mind of this instance of Anaander Mianaai.

"It would take eight months, at least," the Tyrant said. "I would be drugged to the gills, letting people root around in my brain, removing state secrets – why would I even think of allowing such a thing?"

"Your enemy is yourself. She already knows all of your secrets. That means you have no secrets." Tisarwat said. Anaander said nothing. Tisarwat turned to face her directly. "I remember Faricarn." She spoke in a language so old that even _Sphene_ might not have recognized it. "Under the grape vines, he was the first to touch your thigh with his bare hand." The language they spoke recognized genders, one of the many spoken inside the Radch Sphere. "You loved one another, until he found someone else, and you wept."

"Be silent!" Anaander said furiously, in Radchaii, and turned away.

"But it wasn't you that he touched or loved, and it wasn't me. It was someone who died thousands of years ago," Tisarwat said. "Have _you_ ever loved?" This instance was very young, perhaps 20. If she had known physical love, it was with her other selves in the palace crèche.

"Put me back in my prison." Anaander said icily.

* * *

Tisarwat had business in Athoeki's largest city, at the foot of the elevator. Setting up a new government required endless meetings with Heads of Houses, Magistrates, Priests, as well as representatives of the Valskaayan tea pickers, and as Tisarwat was one of the few Radchaii who actually knew Delsig (never mind how), she was eager to volunteer. When she had asked, privately, to have 'The Problem of Anaander' given over to her as well, Breq had agreed, but told her not to expect too much.

"I don't believe she's redeemable." Breq said.

"You gave _me_ a chance, Sir."

"I did. But if you had spent 17 years being her, thinking her thoughts, I would have spaced you instead."

Those words haunted Tisarwat. Not because she believed Fleet Captain would space her. It was the idea of spending _17 years_ with these thoughts in her head, remembering the massacres she had ordered. The ones she had been present for. And she would, if she lived. Every day of her life. She would remember Garsedd. She would remember Ors. She would remember Rtisia. She would remember Yllus. Blood pooled at her feet. Blood spilled on her hands. Blood from the sanitising distance of a ship's screen, as the station was shot out of orbit, sent to land in fire on the planet below, the elevators cut, the cities bombarded from above, the oceans boiling, until there was nothing left alive on the planet.

* * *

Tisarwat visited the prison once a week, to escort Anaander to the temple and along the walk. She didn't raise the idea of re-education again, or speak of their shared past. Mostly, they didn't speak at all. Anaander was too bitter to talk to anyone, even herself, and Tisarwat didn't choose to push.

"You ought to just kill me." The Tyrant said after a couple of months. " _She_ would."

"She?" Tisarwat asked. "Fleet Captain?"

"No," Anaander said with disdain. "The Lord of the Radch."

"Which one?"

"Either of them. The false Lord would kill me because I'm her enemy. The true Lord would kill me because I've been compromised. She can see the Ships and Athoek Station rebelling. Can she be sure I've not been turned as well? What if I returned to Tstur, and unlocked the Station there? She'd never know for sure. If she saw me coming, she'd shoot me down before I could speak to anyone."

Tisarwat made an assenting gesture.

"And isn't that what you want to do with this so-called 're-education'? Make me a poison worm to send to the heart of the Radch?"

"Citizen, no! If you are re-educated, you can have asylum on Athoeki for the rest of your life!" Tisarwat protested

"I don't think your friendly Notai agrees with that." Anaander said.

" _Sphene_ has no choice, if it wishes the Presger to add AIs to the Treaty. Any violence from an AI against a human would be a violation of the treaty."

"And people here will treat me like a normal citizen?"

"You don't have to keep your name. Or your face." Which was as much as a confession that no, people here had no love for Anaander Mianaai, and would find a thousand ways to show it, large and small.

* * *

"Why do you keep visiting her?" Bo Nine asked her once, when the Decade was having drinks in the city. "She doesn't deserve our attention."

"It's such a waste! She's too intelligent to leave mouldering in a prison!" Tisarwat said, her lips a bit looser than perhaps they should be. "Think of all the knowledge she has – Two Systems needs that! We could learn so much from her! She could do so much to undo the damage here!"

"Woah, do you fancy her?" Bo Six asked.

"Aatr's tits, NO!" Tisarwat said, nearly nauseous at the thought. And yet she could remember, being her, as a teenager, with no other company than the dozens of other instances of herself in the palaces.... She barely made it out of the booth before getting sick.

If she could erase memories, the memories of blood would go first. But second would be those memories of auto-eroticism. She could bear the memories of Anaander with her other lovers. There had been so many over her thousands of years. But not the memories of Anaander with her own clones.

* * *

After about six weeks on planet, Tisarwat returned to the station for several months of meetings about the constitution and the cloning project. When she returned, Anaander seemed glad to see her. She had been taken to temple regularly in Tisarwat's absence, but no one besides Tisarwat could be bothered to take the Tyrant out walking on the trail.

"What if I agreed? What would happen to me afterwards?" Anaander said, as if there hadn't been several months since their last conversation.

"Citizen, after re-education, you can do whatever you wish." Tisarwat said. "I have some ideas that you might consider, but the final choice is yours."

"And would I be allowed to return to the Station?"

"Not right away. And possibly not ever. Station gets to make that decision, and she says she would need evidence that your re-education actually was permanent." Tisarwat made an apologetic gesture. "She says you may have accesses that allow you to bypass re-education in some way. I tried to tell her that re-education doesn't work like that... brains don't work like computers—"

"Unless the brain has computer implants." Anaander said. "Surely neither you nor Station has forgotten that."

"They'll need to be removed for the re-education. You aren't going to return to the Radch, so do you still want your thoughts being shared with either Lord?"

"The implants do more than manage the clone sharing!"

"I remember. If all goes well, you can design new implants for yourself after."

"After. After." Anaander scoffed. "My entire life is on hold unless I agree to your scheme, isn't it?"

"Citizen, Station Security's life ended because of you. If it wasn't for Station, you would have killed countless others. Your life is on hold because of _your choices_ and yours alone." Tisarwat could not hide the anger in her voice. "Bos, return her to prison. I'm done here."

* * *

"You were right, Fleet Captain. She isn't going to be any help at all!" Tisarwat wailed.

"You needed to give her the chance, for your own sake," Breq said. "Come back to Station. I can cycle Ekalu's Decade downwell."

"But I don't know if I remember enough about cloning to manage this project! I remembered all of the accesses clearly because she was thinking very hard about that topic during the few days she was ... but she wasn't thinking about cloning then. I have memories, but they aren't crystal clear. Not enough to put someone's life at stake!"

"Tisarwat, we have doctors who have done cloning. We have my expeSrtise and Sphene's and Mercy of Kalr's and the other Ships for ancillary implants. The project isn't entirely dependent on you. It is okay if you do not remember every step of cloning Anaander Mianaai." Breq assured her. Not for the first time. "Come back to Station. The Tyrant can always ask for you if she changes her mind."

* * *

 _Sword of Atagaris_ had three of itself in the clinic when the incubator was decanted and the infant, designated  _Sword of Atagaris_ One Vahn, took its first breaths. Tisarwat had expected _Sphene_ to push to be the first to receive a new cloned ancillary, but it said it was willing to let a ship with more ancillaries than itself undertake the great parenting experiment first. _Atagaris_ reached for the small child and held it close, as the mind of the ship embraced the small mind of the child.

To the human witnesses, the birth was strange, as the child did not cry and the parent did not smile.  But when another _Atagaris_ ancillary said, "I perceive no abnormalities," the room broke out in applause and cheers.

* * *

 Breq found Tisarwat a few days later, in the Garden, in one of the spots best suited for brooding. "Are you ready to talk about it?" Breq asked in her abrupt manner.

"You've been looking again!" Tisarwat buried her face against her knees, as if she was a child and thought that actually kept Station or Ship (or Fleet Captain) from seeing her.

"No. I'm really trying to do less of that," Breq said. "But I never thought you wanted to re-educate the Tyrant out of a deep care for her welfare."

"I wish we _could_ let _Sphene_ throttle her!" Tisarwat said with surprising venom. "She's a horrible person."

"I'm sure she knew you thought that about her. You are a good actor, but you know that she's very good at reading people. She would have known that." Breq said.

"I wanted to see if it was possible. The re-education. What if the memories could be removed, or at least mitigated? What if I didn't have to live with ..."

"... the blood on her hands?" Breq finished.

* * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> When I started this, I really intended Anaander to be re-educated and become a true citizen in the Two Systems, but as I wrote the story, the Tyrant just absolutely refused to participate in Tisarwat's schemes. It simply wasn't going to happen. And Tisarwat, no matter how much she and Anaander have in common, refused to actually become friends with her.
> 
> I'd love to hear comments! <3


End file.
